Your message starts here.

A content development strategy establishes the processes and creators necessary to generate your website's content.  This process still needs a framework to work within to answer the question, what do we need to communicate?  For that, review AVATAR's Web Content Planning Process.  And to help keep track of your content, you need an effective content management solution.

AVATAR has designed 5 Strategic Content Development Stages to help you get started.

First, audit available content and identify what is available, what format it is available in, and what challenges, if any, will be faced when using that content.  Start with what you have and where it is located.

• Number of pages, documents, assets
• Page names and URLs or locations
• Identify content types such as image, document, PDF, video, etc.
• Automated and manual audit
• Set up a crosswalk spreadsheet.

Next, evaluate the quality of this content.

• Identify content owners and stakeholders
• Define content evaluation criteria i.e. age, relevance, legal requirement, quality, and accuracy
• Decide which content will be left, kept, or merged
• Define the state of the content, effort to update, priorities and migration order
• Identify the visual assets and PDF documents
• Analyze site statistics and define review sign-off process.

Next, identify content creators and task creation.

• Map the current content from the audit phase to the new information architecture
• Review the new design and evaluate the impact on content
• Define how long new content will take to create
• Estimate the resource requirements and key dates/milestones and identify risks
• Establish tools, templates, editorial guidelines, and other documents
• Define sign-off processes and management.

Next, content loading, building, launching, and your new website

• Define taxonomies/naming conventions for content
• Understand your new CMS 
• Define workflow and resources needed
• Define sign-off management
• Set up and manage redirects and SEO tasks
• Establish analytics for all content
• Establish archiving of out of date, if necessary
• Design syndication process, if necessary.

And finally, develop content evolution and expansion.

• Transition to day-to-day processes
• Establish change management policies 
• Design modifications to on-going content strategy
• Identify content creators (see step 3 above)
• Create schedule of content creation
• Re-evaluate user adoption.

Recent Posts

Browse All Archives »